Posted on 03/01/2002 5:16:24 PM PST by truthandlife
The nation's cell phone service providers will soon know exactly where every one of their customers is, at all times, and privacy rights groups are asking what they plan to do with the information.
All U.S. carriers are under Federal Communications Commission orders to make it possible for police to locate cell phones calling 911, something police can't do now. Carriers plan to use the same systems to sell services like helping stranded motorists even if they don't know their location, or finding the closest restaurant.
Because people with cell phone generally always carry their phone with them, the FCC regulations give the thriving market for personal information something its never had a chance to get: the exact locations at all times of more than 140 million people.
"There are some things you don't mind other people knowing, but your location isn't one of them," said Gary Laden, a privacy program director for BBBOnline, a Better Business Bureau subsidiary.
Private details that become public knowledge every time people visit Web pages and leave information, every address that the U.S. government sells, or every ATM transaction that dutifully records the time are just some of the ways that technology has been tracking individuals. But knowing someone's location at all times adds a significant new twist to tracking information about people.
Sprint is already offering an Enhanced 911 (E911) system in Rhode Island and sells a pair of phones that work on the system. In a year, Verizon Wireless says nearly half of all new handsets activated will have this capability. The FCC expects 95 percent of the cell phones sold in the United States by 2005 will meet the FCC guidelines.
Neither AT&T Wireless nor Verizon Wireless offer any E911 or related services yet. But both say they do not sell the information they already collect from their subscribers, such as a home address used to send a monthly bill. And they don't plan to do anything different with the location information once they do offer those services.
"We already know where you live, but we haven't made that available to anyone," Verizon Wireless representative Nancy Stark said.
Travis Larson, a spokesman for the wireless trade group Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association said the worry isn't so much the carriers, but the independent companies that provide the commercial services.
"Not all companies in this space will be CTIA members," he said. "Then you have a group of businesses unregulated."
So far, backers of two consumer privacy initiatives say they've begun talks with carriers about what they plan to do with the information they collect.
On Wednesday, AT&T Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi said the company is the first U.S. carrier to have its privacy policies reviewed and approved by Truste, a coalition that approves online privacy policies, whose sponsors include AT&T Wireless, AOL Time Warner, Intel, Microsoft and others.
Truste and AT&T Wireless are also working together to create a uniform policy for what carriers should do with the information they collect. Blasi and a spokesman for Truste said they want carriers to tell subscribers that their location can be tracked, and what plans, if any, they have for the information.
Also Wednesday, supporters of a recently approved privacy standard known as P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences) say they've also begun a dialogue with wireless carriers.
Some versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer use P3P to automate the process of deciding if a Web site's privacy policies are good enough for a user. People can pre-load their Web browsers with preferences, such as whether they want a Web site to accept a browser's cookies filled with personal information. If the browser is directed toward a Web page, it'll seek out the privacy policies and determine if they match the preferred ones. If not, the Web page doesn't load.
Josh Freed, a spokesman for the Internet Education Foundation, said backers of P3P want to offer the same type of function to cell phone customers. "This way, every time there is an exchange of data, the phone alerts you if there is a conflict," he said.
The effort is very new, Freed and others warn, and is preceding even the existing technology.
"We have a blank page in front of us now," said J. Walter Hyer, AT&T Wireless chief privacy officer.
You're asking why anyone would mind in a non-"Big Brother" context, and as I've alluded to earlier, no one would care, unless they were doing something wrong.
The problem arises if we do find ourselves in BigBroVille, with total-tracking-capability up and running. When things that are not illegal now, are illegal then, who will object?
Ask the Christians in China.
"Tracking" is inherent in the normal operation of the cellular system. It can't work if it doesn't know where the phones are.
Totally agree. Recall the car rental agency that was penalizing people for exceding the speed limit. If we are willing to accept this, there is no limit to the abuse and intrusion on our lives.
I do because I value my Freedom (or what little is left of it).
Why aren't you concerned about the gov't tracking you? Just how certain are you that you haven't violated one of the hundreds of thousands "laws" or regulatory edicts on the books?
People say "I obey the law so I don't have anything to worry about", but how many of us can honestly say we always obey every law, even the ones we don't know about?
In the tyrannical Big Brother that the "domestic enemies of the Constitution" are proposing, they will be able to track us all. If anyone steps out of line, they'll come after the "guilty" party and make him/her quietly go away.
It is exactly this mentality that is destroying the little liberty we have remaining in this once free republic.
Would you feel the same way if Fedgov mandated that you have video cameras installed throughout your house "just in case" they need it? After all, if you have nothing to hide, and since it will only be monitored (retroactively) by court order, what do you have to fear? If you were murdered in your home, it might aid police greatly in catching them.
You and me both brother.
You are right--I tend to still be naive because I am one of those citizens who thinks that, because I don't have anything to hide, that I am protected from intrusion from Big Brother--WRONG. Fact is we all need to wake up and see how our rights are being eroded every day under the guise of the goverment protecting us.
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